Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen And The Tower of Mirrors Preview

System: Wii

Review Rating Legend

Dev: Square-Enix

1.0 - 1.9 = Avoid

4.0 - 4.4 = Great

Pub: Square-Enix

2.0 - 2.4 = Poor

4.5 - 4.9 = Must Buy

Release: Feb. 19, 2008

2.5 - 2.9 = Average

5.0 = The Best

Players: 1-2

3.0 - 3.4 = Fair

ESRB Rating: Teen

3.5 - 3.9 = Good

Dragon Quest, the name shares fame with one of the most successful and acclaimed RPG series of all time. Its also been around for quite some time, releasing as Dragon Warrior for the NES years ago. After Nintendo and Square parted ways in the mid 90s, the series evolved on the Playstation platform. However, as the dawning of the next generation of video gaming quickly approaches, Square-Enix is releasing another Dragon Quest game, for the Nintendo Wii.

The news first came at the Square-Enix press conference at E3 back in May. A video trailer revealed that the company was readying two games for the Wiis launch, one being a Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles game, the other, Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors. While this is fantastic news for Nintendo fans, other than a live action trailer and some logo art, there is absolutely no information available about the game. This means that we can only speculate on what this new Dragon Quest game has to offer. Lets put on our guessing caps shall we?

The first piece of potential gameplay comes in the form of the games trailer. An armor-clad warrior runs through a forest, wielding the Wii-remote as if it were some sort of weapon. He comes across a television set displaying an 8-bit version of one of the games enemies. The warrior slashes at the monster on the screen and is shown being visibly damaged. Whether or not this in any indication of how the battle system will be set up remains to be seen, but its fun to speculate isnt it?

The executive producer of the game, Yuu Miyake, has expressed his fondness of the Wii console and its simplistic design. These words could give us a general direction to where his team is taking the game in terms of design. Its also interesting to note that Square-Enix produced a stand alone Dragon Quest title, Kenshin Dragon Quest, a game that utilized a sword and sensor. The sensor would allow players to slice and slash at enemies in eight different directions. This game could be another indication to how the company will handle combat with the Wii remote. For instance, since the remote can be detected in a true 3-D space, you would be able to attack in any direction, parry and block, and make stabbing motions towards your foes. Of course, this is all speculation until Square-Enix reveals more information on the game.

What else can be expected from this enigmatic new Dragon Quest game you ask? Fans of the series will probably recognize the name Koichi Sugiyama, as he has been the series musical composer since the beginning. His beautiful orchestrated soundtracks are regarded as some of the best in RPGs today, and the good news is that he is listed as the composer for this new DQ game. You can thank your ears for this. So the game may play and sound great, but what about the graphics? The brief E3 trailer did display some 3-D models, but not much else, leaving us to scratch our heads further. Consider this however. Dragon Quest VIII looked beautiful on the Playstation 2, the Gamecube is generally more powerful than the PS2, and the Wii is twice as powerful than the Gamecube. So with this fact in mind, we should rest assured that Square-Enix will make the most out of the Wii hardware to produce a game that is sure to be visually impressive.

Its still a mystery as to how Square-Enix will handle this original entry into the Dragon Quest series. They only have a handful of months left to put the final touches on the game however, as it will launch side by side with the Wii sometime this fall. Until then, RPG fans will have to wait patiently and play the guessing game until any new information is released.